Teresa Tambunting, who is charged with stealing as much as $12 million in gold from her Queens jewelry-manufacturer employer, gave a wry grin when she spotted a Post photographer outside her Scarsdale home yesterday.

Tambunting allegedly swiped 500 pounds of gold belonging to Jacmel Jewelry by stashing small pieces in her handbag with a false bottom over six years.

Sources said the 50-year-old married mother of three may have a form of obsessive-control disorder that leads her to hoard items, including the gold.

Investigators have recovered about $7.3 million in gold pieces that Tambunting allegedly kept stashed in 12 large plastic treasure chests in her home. But they are still probing what happened to another $4.7 million of gold that could still be missing.

So far, they have found no evidence that Tambunting — whose husband works for the Cantor Fitzgerald securities firm — converted the jewelry into cash.